Security Research Center Policy

In today’s world we have become more and more connected to Internet services, software, and hardware devices.

We share our information with our banks, medical institutions, and employers. We share our information with smartphones, smart TVs, smart watches, and other “smart things” in our homes, which usually retain our information in the remote databases outside our control.
These technologies are deeply integrated into our lives and, in many cases, we have become dependent on them, making us vulnerable when the technology fails or our information is not properly protected.

Our research

We conduct security research to locate any data exposures in the databases of various companies, organisations, and institutions.

Typically we use the Shodan search engine to locate unprotected Internet-connected devices. This search engine is publicly accessible, and allows researchers to identify devices and databases that are connected to the open Internet without any password protection or other technological barriers to safeguard the data stored in them. We do not crack passwords or authentication processes or use any other hacking tricks.

Once we discover a publicly exposed database, we report our findings according to the following guidelines:

When appropriate, we provide details of the data exposure to the company, organisation, or institution that failed to protect itself.

We do not modify the data we found.

We allow entities time to remedy the data exposure prior to making any details available publicly that would otherwise cause further risk.

We do not transfer any data to any third parties.

Why do we do this?

Here, in the Security Research Center, we do our best to:

Help businesses build better security by identifying data leaks, and

Raise public awareness to the dangers related to data breaches and security risks in the connected world.

Popular articles

MacKeeper™ Against Scare Ads

Report Scare Ad and Claim Your Reward!

MacKeeper cares deeply about our customers and our brand. We are also serious about our reputation and taking proactive steps to protect it from fraudulent and damaging content posted online over the years. As such, our priority will always be providing the highest level of quality and service while taking every necessary step to protect the security and data of our users.

To demonstrate this commitment toward our customers, we ask that anyone who sees a scare ad for MacKeeper report the url and the ad to us so we can take action against those responsible for displaying these unethical ads. To report MacKeeper Scare Advertising* and claim your reward** please send the information to: scare@mackeeper.com

Protecting our Brand

When Kromtech Alliance Corp. acquired MacKeeper from ZeoBIT the first thing we did was reconsider our approach to the way we advertise online and set up clear and distinctive compliance rules that are a mandatory requirement, both internally and externally.

We understand that Mac users want a smooth user experience and have gradually changed our delivery methods to what we feel is an acceptable model. In our attempt to make sure that MacKeeper ads meet our own compliance requirements, we have placed strict set of rules on our third-party affiliate sales partners. In the beginning, many of them did not comply with our rules and were eliminated from our affiliate sales program. We depend on our affiliate partners just as they depend on us and the same can be said for the websites and bloggers that depend on this advertising revenue.

Unfortunately, we still uncover affiliates who abuse our program and deliver unethical or scare ads. Our compliance team requires that all third-party ads and landing pages be approved before going live online as an attempt to ensure that what appears online is an accurate representation of the MacKeeper brand. When we find that one of our third-party affiliate sales partners is abusing these requirements we will take action. Recently, we have seen an increase in cases where a third-party affiliate will use a complex series of redirects to show scare ads and then funnel the visitors to an approved landing page. We do not approve of these methods and object to any form of scare advertising.

Zero Tolerance

If you see a scare ad for MacKeeper, again we're asking you to report the url and the ad to us so we can take action against those responsible. We have adopted a zero tolerance policy.

To report any instance of a MacKeeper Scare Ad* and claim your reward** please send the information to: scare@mackeeper.com

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* Scare Ad is what we DO NOT use in our approved advertisements and will NEVER approve:

a fake scan run, claiming that user's Mac is infected with a virus or viruses and/or at risk, pushing users to make them download or buy MacKeeper.

usage of scary and aggressive colors and backgrounds, different kinds of warnings and/or imitate system/browser errors.

misleading information. We can’t claim that MacKeeper does things that actually it can't do (e.g. speed up Mac's performance, fix system issues, etc.). Also, there should not be a suggestion or a false association of MacKeeper with third party companies or organizations.